I want to feel the insane passion in cheap venues from plain clothes jersey audiences cheering for small sponsor random teams waving cheap flags playing for huge prizes following their dreams again.

I want to experience the feeling of fighting pre-pathed average obligations, dropping friends, ignoring rules and laws and borders and hate to pursue things everyone called you crazy for even thinking about again. The days when it meant everything and nothing else mattered and you didn't understand anything.

I want to go to a LAN after begging my parents for 3 months with my long-term online friends as a stupid 19 year old and sneak into the after party bar from some twitter leak, in a country with a legal drinking limit under my own, before anybody ever said anything about COVID, to meet players and staff who think I belong there again.

I want to watch people I believed in since the day we met rise and rise and fight and play, against everything EVERYONE said about their life, and FINALLY make it again.

I love esports so much

Hi everyone,

We're currently running the Warlordes Battle Season, a competitive event for Warlordes, our Android platform fighting game inspired by African culture and characters.

The tournament is open to all players. To qualify, you need to earn the required XP in the game and compete through the Battle Season until the Grand Finale.

Some of the features include:

• 1v1 competitive online battles
• Multiple playable legends with different fighting styles
• Seasonal leaderboard progression
• ₦10,000,000 (about $7,350) total prize pool for the current Battle Season

We're especially interested in hearing from Android fighting game players:

• How does the combat feel?
• Is the progression system easy to understand?
• What would you improve before future seasons?

Google Play: https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=com.HammerGames.Warlordes

Battle Season registration/details: https://docs.google.com/forms/d/e/1FAIpQLScWdGXvPLkbo56w2k0qb0mFqyw0YPyRzGKebc2F4XMlkZpNpA/viewform

Happy to answer any questions or discuss the game with anyone interested.

ive been so so so into esports growing up and ive always wondered why LA and other areas on the west coast are avoided for big events. like cs majors, six invitational. stuff like that. i think we’ve only ever had that one vct final at the kia forum… and thats it. is there a reason why Los Angeles is looked over so much in the esports scene as a whole? either that or maybe i just havent dug deep enough to find events here :P

Faker is the undisputed GOAT of any Esports and there's no argument for any other really. The GOAT for 13 years in one of if not the most popular Esports of all time. It's really hard to make an argument for anyone to be over Faker especially in games where the playerbase population is a small fraction of LoL

Source: Gabe News Telegram

How teams being treated behind the scene?!

According to information obtained by Gabe News from multiple organizations and industry sources, tournament organizer FISSURE currently owes more than $1,000,000 in unpaid prize money to Dota 2 teams.

The alleged unpaid payments date back to FISSURE PLAYGROUND #1 (January 2025) and reportedly include several events held throughout 2025. FISSURE organized multiple Tier 1 tournaments during that period, including FISSURE PLAYGROUND 1, FISSURE Special, and several FISSURE Universe events, with advertised prize pools ranging from $70,000 to $1,000,000.

According to sources familiar with the situation, organizations affected include some of the biggest names in professional Dota 2, such as:
Team Falcons
Team Yandex
MOUZ
BB Team
HEROIC
Tundra Esports
and several other organizations.

Teams allegedly pressured to continue playing
Several sources claim that teams have been told they should continue participating in future FISSURE events if they want to eventually receive outstanding payments.

According to one source:

Another organization described the situation as:

New tournaments despite outstanding debts:

Despite the reported unpaid obligations, FISSURE is said to be planning additional online and LAN tournaments with $100,000–$1,000,000 prize pools both before and after The International.

Questions That Need Answers

If true, this raises serious questions:

• Why are new tournaments being organized while previous prize money allegedly remains unpaid?
• Why are professional teams still accepting invitations under these circumstances?
• Should tournament organizers be required to settle outstanding obligations before launching additional events?
• Should Valve introduce stronger financial oversight for third-party tournament organizers participating in the Dota 2 ecosystem?

The competitive Dota ecosystem relies on trust between organizers and teams. If a tournament organizer is allegedly carrying over $1 million in unpaid obligations while continuing to launch new events, it is an issue that affects the entire scene—not just the teams involved.

While lower-tier regional teams get weeks off to recharge, the world's best players are pushed to their absolute physical and mental limits without a breather. They used to have rest between MSI and fighting their regional splits, but now with EWC they are forced to play back-to-back tournaments to feed Riot and our entertainment. Before long we will see the quality of these games drop because the players are humans too, they will eventually crumble under this

Most esports conversations are dominated by global titles like Valorant, League of Legends, PUBG Mobile, and Call of Duty: Mobile.

Recently, I came across the Warlordes Battle Season, a competitive tournament built around a Nigerian-developed platform fighting game. What caught my attention wasn't just the tournament itself, but the bigger question it raises about where African esports is heading.

For years, African players have competed primarily in games developed outside the continent. Seeing a Nigerian-made title launch a structured competitive season with a ₦10 million prize pool (about $6,500) made me wonder if this is the kind of initiative that could help build a stronger local esports ecosystem.

I'd love to hear what people in this community think:

• Can a Nigerian-developed game realistically become a respected global esports title?

• What matters most for long-term success: a large prize pool, consistent tournaments, great gameplay, or a strong community?

• What has prevented African-developed competitive games from breaking into the global esports scene?

• Would you watch or follow a Nigerian or African esports league if the production quality and competition were world-class?

• What do you think the African esports industry needs most over the next five years?

Could initiatives like the Warlordes Battle Season be the beginning of a stronger African esports ecosystem, or is there still too much standing in the way?

If you're interested in seeing what a Nigerian-developed competitive game has to offer, or even competing for a share of the ₦10 million prize pool, now is a great time to check out Warlordes.

Curious to hear your thoughts!

As in title - I'm looking for such places in Poland and want to participate

[LFP] ChaosHunters Esports | PUBG PC | India 🇮🇳

ChaosHunters Esports is recruiting dedicated Indian PUBG PC players for our competitive roster.

What we're looking for:

• Indian players (18+ preferred)
• Good communication and teamwork
• Active for regular scrims and tournaments
• Competitive mindset with willingness to improve

What we provide:

• Organized management
• Regular scrims and tournament participation
• Long-term roster development
• Positive and professional team environment

If you're interested, send me a DM with:

• IGN
• Age
• State
• Rank
• Tournament experience (if any)
• Discord ID

Serious inquiries only. Let's build a strong roster together. 🇮🇳

I finally finished building Krew, and now nobody's using it. Classic.

Quick recap for anyone new: I got sick of losing more time to Discord LFG scrolling than actually gaming, so I built Krew — a real squad finder + tournament platform for Indian gamers (BGMI, Valorant, Free Fire, CS2, CODM). It's live on the Play Store now, tournaments and all, and I'm already stuck.

Here's the part where I stop pretending everything's great: I've hit the classic marketplace chicken-and-egg problem, and it's kicking my ass.

• Players won't stick around if there aren't enough live sessions and tournaments to join
• Organizers won't bother setting up a tournament if there's no player base to register
• Both sides are basically waiting on the other one to show up first

So instead of pretending this is solved, I'm asking the people who'd actually know:

If you were me, which side would you go all-in on first — players or organizers? And how would you fake liquidity on the other side long enough for it to feel alive?

Some things I'm considering (roast these too, please):

• Seeding fake-but-real sessions myself just to make the app look active on day one
• Going straight to college gaming clubs/Discords that already run manual tournaments and just... doing it for them for free the first few times
• Ignoring players entirely for a month and going organizer-first since tournaments pull in whole existing communities at once

📲 Play Store if you want to poke around before dunking on me. Website's at trykrew.com, updates are tracked at trykrew.com/updates, and we're on Instagram too. Happy to drop the rest (tournaments, Discord, Product Hunt, LinkedIn) in the comments for anyone who asks.

Genuinely not looking for "nice job bro" comments here — tell me what's wrong with the plan, what's wrong with the app, what you'd do differently. I'll reply to literally everything.

Hey was wondering if anyone else saw this and knows anything about it? Www.tickrcast.com, was looking to add something like this to my man cave.

The goat of Esports, the Michael Jordan equivalent?

And why? What specifically separates and distinguishes that particular esports player above the rest in your opinion?

/// Lmao @ these nerd edgelords finding a reason to get offended or sound smart by arguing strawman fallacy. It's not so deep. It's a simple question, and a rather interesting and engaging one, while being pretty relevant I'd say. Cringe.

Anyone else watching CDL Day 3 today?

Curious to see how it plays out. Who do you think stands out, and are there any matchups you're especially looking forward to?

​

Hi everyone,

I'm a college student, so I don't have unlimited free time. I usually get home in the evening, so I can only play for a few hours after college.

I'm confused between PUBG PC and Valorant.

I'm not interested in becoming an esports player or going pro. I just want one multiplayer game that I can enjoy for a long time.

My aim is average, not great. I'm willing to improve, but I don't want a game that feels frustrating every match.

I've also seen people say:

- Valorant is a "kids game" or "girls game."

- Valorant has a very toxic community with low-IQ teammates.

- PUBG PC has a lot of campers, hackers, and slower gameplay.

I don't know how true these opinions are.

If you've played both games, which one would you recommend and why?

I'm mainly looking for:

- Which game is more fun in 2026?

- Which has the better community?

- Which gets boring faster?

- Which is better for a college student who only has a few hours to play in the evening?

I'd especially like to hear from people with 100+ hours in both games. Thanks!

I've been building this in my spare time because I was tired of jumping between 5 sites (HLTV, Liquipedia, Dotabuff…) and none of them did CS2 *and* Dota 2 well, with no ads/paywall.

What it does right now:

• Match pages with full per-map player stats (CS2 via HLTV, Dota via OpenDota)
• Player & team pages: ratings, form, H2H history, prize money, tournament placements
• Match predictions (data-driven favourite % from rankings + form + H2H — no LLM guessing)
• Tournaments with full brackets + prize distribution
• Fully bilingual (English + Ukrainian), no login, no ads

Data so far: 4,200+ matches, 92 tournaments, ~1,300 players, 369 teams.

Link: https://cybersports.live/

It's a solo project, so I'd genuinely love feedback - what's missing, what feels off, what would make you actually use it over what you use now?

Any tournument sites or groups youd recommend for Cs2 besides faceit?

honestly so sick of watching the amateur esports scene get completely ruined by smurfs and ban evaders. Tried helping run an open bracket tournament last weekend and it was a total disaster. half the teams registering were clearly high-tier players on fresh alt accounts using 50-cent virtual phone numbers to bypass the platform verification gates

the tournament platforms do absolutely nothing about it either. They just take their hosting fees and leave local organizers to deal with the inevitable bracket drama after a team of hidden pros stomps actual amateurs

We're getting to a point where traditional phone or email verification is totally useless for competitive integrity. Honestly think online leagues are gonna have to shift entirely to hardware-level identity checks. like hooking up registration to an Orb verification function just to prove a unique, physical human is actually attached to that specific game profile

otherwise grassroots esports is just completely dead. You can't build a real scene when competitive brackets can be manipulated this easily. kinda losing my mind with this stuff

Saw this video from Kaash Plays where she accused owners of one of the biggest esports org S8UL’s owner of scamming her with money.

https://youtube.com/watch?v=H6SUCzvePSw&si=SvkBoWhIhzml2hps

So is indian e-sports just a scam industry now?

What comes to my mind is T1 in League. They have won 6 times and they have inarguably the best Esports player of all time in their team too.

Are there any other super OP teams across the many Esports scenes?

So after watching MSI 2026 for lol, I have been hyped watching lol esport, and then YT decide to recommended Dota2 EWC, and wow the watching experience is so bad, for context I played Dota1 for my entire highschool and collage, and have 200 hours in Dota2. My lol stat however I just played it for 6 month I think I am level 40-45 before I quit. Both games taking so much of my time so I just decide to quit.

So I think my criticism should be objective. I just want to rant because I like Dota2 I think valve done it so dirty, also I am strongly disagree that the reason why lol have more viewer than dota 2 is because of marketing from riot. I think people who say that is smoking something, because wow the quality between both game when it comes to watching is just so different, it is just not enjoyable to watch dota. So please take my criticism as a way so we can watch dota2 better. I am not trying to shit on dota 2 as a game.

1. Caster voice/mic. Something is very wrong here, isn't both managed by EWC why is the mic in dota2 so bad, it have echo/broad sound stage sometimes, I dont know how to explain it, you just have to listen to it, but I seriously hate how echo-y the caster sound. I actually find this so strange, so I decide to watch last year International, it was soo much worse. So there is an improvement, but it sometimes it still happen.

2. The game not starting immediately after hero ban & pick, maybe someone can shine light here. But why instead of just going straight to match we watch caster blabbing so long or interviewing coach or worse, one of the match the caster is just read ads after the match start, there evidence of skirmish happening but because the ads read they miss it and decide to brush it off. Is the loading is so long that this is needed? this ruin the pace.

3. The UI, we all know item have so much impact on both side, but more so for dota2, not only that skill in dota2 matter more, so why the UI can only highlight 1 hero? Not only that you would see the mouse cursor of them clicking the UI trying to find what stat to show, what hero to highlight, in lol after each fight we got stat who contribute the most during the clash, it have good data so despite me being noob I enjoy the match. Also what is up with the indicator of where in the minimap camera is so obscure, just put big white rectangle so I know where in the map this camera highlighting.

4. The in game camera movement, tbf I seriously don't know how lol do it, but the camera work is so good. Sometimes I wonder it feels like they know what will happen, or thing happen just in the camera, so it feels so smooth (it is like focusing on mirana before she took the shoot until it hit target). Dota2 in the other hand it feel like it being controlled by 10 years old, the camera is desperate and playing catch up, not only that when they are shuffling the lane instead of clicking the map, it will zip around using smooth scrolling. I am not lying I get nausea when watching it for 30 min, this is the reason I decide to write this long rant.

5. This one is just me being pedantic, but what is with the player still loitering for so long after match end, don't they have to go back and talk about strategy for the next match with their coach or something. This is just an opinion thou, maybe others like this more chaotic, where we see them cleanup their desk or stare blankly at the screen.

This one is mostly compliment to MSI tournament, or just EWC not doing better job making their tournament look more professional

1. The camera placement for the player, I prefer MSI camera placement in upper dead center instead of lower right/left, I think seeing the reaction of player making good play is a joy to watch, and you see it better when it is dead center and not covered in darkness.

2. Also please stop interviewing player or coach when the match not over yet, let them rest. Is the caster really can't fill the time, that you need to drag them out in the middle of the match.

I hope dota 2 can do better so it is more enjoyable to watch, but as for now I don't think I can continue watching, which is sad since I know more about dota 2 than lol. Other thing I want to mention is wow, dota 2 is really good looking and flashy, lol is trash compared to how dota 2 looked. I don't think this is just rose-colored glasses, because I honestly don't remember Dota 2 ever looking this good. If not for the occasional 90m match I really want to play dota 2 again.